Last Updated 3 years ago
You may know all too well that sugar is both delicious and gives you a feel-good high when you need it most.
It is therefore no surprise that almost two thirds of the British public exceed the recommended daily intake of free sugars.
But if you want to curb your emotional eating or are ready to lose weight, could stopping sugar help? And what will happen to your body when you stop?
Sugar Highs
Free sugars are also known as refined or added sugars. This includes the sugar you add to your coffee, sugar used in baking, and sugar found in processed treats.
Cutting out added sugar takes willpower. That’s due, in part, to sweet treats making us feel good emotionally.
Sugar triggers our emotional reward systems. The feeling we get when we eat a sugary meal or snack activates the pleasure centre in the brain by raising dopamine levels and stimulating our opioid receptors.
In 2019, scientists found that the ability of sugar to “generate a superior neurological reward signal” can make it difficult for the individual to resist over-eating, leading to obesity.
An animal study in 2013 found that Oreo cookies could be “just as addictive as cocaine”. The researchers suggested that this could be why it can be so hard to resist sugar, even though we know it’s not good for us.
Sugar Lows
Sugar is present in many food items, but it’s the added sugars that we need to focus on. Foods that contain added sugars include cakes, biscuits, chocolate, fizzy drinks and sweets.
We all know that eating excess sugar can lead to weight gain. But sugar could be causing other problems without us even realising.
If you love sugary foods, you may have experienced the following symptoms already:
- Headaches – sugar-related headaches occur following a spike in high blood sugar levels.
- Feeling tired, low in energy or sleepy – high levels of sugar in the body prevent Orexin from being produced. Orexin is a natural chemical that stimulates your brain, making you feel alert and awake.
- Skin inflammation – sugar can cause inflammation to occur anywhere in the body but is most noticeable on the skin. This may play a role in the development of acne.
The good news is that if you cut excess free sugars out, you are likely to see an increase in energy, improved focus, fewer headaches and even improvements in your skin!
Cutting out sugar throughout the day may even help you establish healthier sleep patterns at night.
Long-Term Problems with Sugar
You may be familiar with the short-term lows mentioned above.
Even if you haven’t experienced weight gain, headaches, tiredness or skin outbreaks, sugar could be doing unseen damage on the inside.
Sugar can lead to long term health complications. It is therefore important to take control of your diet, and your health, today.
Over time, consuming excess sugar can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, tooth decay and diabetes.
Reducing Sugar
You may be wondering what happens to your body when you stop eating sugar.
In the short term, you may feel a bit of a sugar crash.
The immediate effects of cutting out sugar include:
- Headache
- ‘Brain fog’ – slowed thinking, feeling less alert, poor attention span
- Feeling irritable
- Low mood
- Occasional gastrointestinal disturbance.
These are likely to settle as your body gets used to new, healthier forms of nutrition.
This is why many people find it hard to persevere with cutting down their sugar intake.
However, the short-term crash is certainly worth it for the numerous long term benefits.
Better Nutrition
When you cut out free sugars such as biscuits and chocolate, you can replace them with healthier foods that contain more nutrients for your body.
Wholefoods are a great source of energy and include fruit, vegetables, fish and nuts or seeds.
When you consume wholefoods, the energy contained within them is broken down more slowly by your body.
This slow release of energy keeps your blood sugar levels more stable, freeing you from the high spikes and low plummets of a diet high in added sugars.
This steady state means you’re far less likely to have a sugar crash or experience sugar cravings, and so resisting sweet treats is likely to be easier.
Moreover, the nutrients contained within wholefoods give your body better fuels to repair and protect itself.
Natural Sugars
You may be wondering why natural sugars are ok, when free sugars should be avoided.
When you eat a banana, there are no added sugars. The natural sugar is contained in the form of both carbohydrate and fibre.
This type of sugar takes longer to digest, making you feel fuller for longer. This means you’ll be less likely to overeat.
Conversely, free sugars in sweets or fizzy drinks can be considered “empty calories”. They don’t have the nutritional value you require, so you still feel hungry even though you have consumed plenty of calories.
This can lead to overeating, high calorie intake, weight gain and eventually health complications.
By swapping to wholefoods, you may find it easier to maintain a healthy weight, as the calories you consume offer nutritional benefit and make you feel full.
Long-Term Health Benefits
Your primary goal in reducing your sugar intake may be to lose weight. However, there are plenty of additional health benefits associated with reducing the free sugars in your diet.
Encouragingly, people who eat a diet low in added sugars will benefit long term, even if their weight remains stable.
So, don’t be put off if weight loss doesn’t occur quickly; other positive changes will still be occurring.
Lowered Cholesterol Levels
Cholesterol is a fatty particle found in the blood. Levels of cholesterol can increase with a diet high in free sugar.
If cholesterol continues to rise, the fatty substances are deposited in the walls of the blood vessels. This can lead to high blood pressure and cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) disease.
Fatty deposits in the blood vessels can also lead to them becoming narrowed, and even blocked. This can eventually cause a heart attack or stroke.
Reducing the amount of sugar you eat can therefore help you to lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Diabetes
Sugar doesn’t directly cause diabetes. However, eating too much sugar causes weight gain which is a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes.
It is important to take steps to minimise your risk of developing the condition, especially if you have other risk factors such as high blood pressure, a strong family history of diabetes or are of South Asian, African-Caribbean or Black African descent.
Losing weight by reducing your sugar intake is a great first step in trying to prevent the onset of diabetes.
Liver Disease
Excess sugar in the blood is stored as fat for the body to use in future.
One of the places that the body stores fat is in the liver.
If we continue to eat high levels of sugar, the body will not need to use the fat it has stored. This is because it has a constant supply of energy from the foods being consumed.
Unfortunately, storing fatty deposits in the liver long term can lead to non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
This disease is becoming so common that it is projected to overtake alcohol as the leading cause of liver disease in the near future.
The inflammatory effect of sugar can also lead to liver damage, meaning that it is less able to eliminate toxins from the body.
When damaged, the liver is less efficient at burning fats and cholesterol, leading to worsening liver and heart disease.
The good news is that the liver is incredibly forgiving.
In most cases, improving your diet alongside regular exercise allows the liver to regenerate gradually.
This will restore function within this vital organ, and help to prevent further damage from occurring.
Dental Health
Cutting out added sugars can be great news for your teeth, too.
When you choose to eat or drink sugary foods, the sugar remains in your mouth. This sugar becomes a food source for bacteria found within the oral cavity.
With an ample sugar supply, mouth bacteria can multiply. This eventually causes cavities, and serious mouth or tooth infections, to occur.
If tooth decay occurs, you may require intense dental treatment or removal of the tooth.
Cutting back on your sugar intake is crucial. When it comes to dental health, sugary drinks including squash, fizzy and sports drinks can do the most damage.
Reducing the sugary source available to the bacteria could slow the rate of decay, or even stop it completely.
Good oral hygiene with regular toothbrushing and flossing are still required.
How Much Sugar Should You Eat?
At first it can be difficult to cut out added or free sugars completely because high levels or sugar can be found where you least expect it.
Yogurt, salad dressing, ketchup and even breakfast cereals can all contain very high levels of refined sugar.
It is therefore no surprise that most of us are eating more sugar than advised.
So how much sugar should you be allowing yourself each day?
Sugar Recommendations
In 1989, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that free sugars should be reduced to less than 10% of the total daily intake. However, in 2015, the WHO updated this recommendation to just 5%.
Few epidemiological studies have taken place regarding the benefit of reducing sugars to 5%. However, in World War 2 a diet equivalent to 5% sugar was enforced through rationing.
The WHO have recommended a 5% sugar diet, as during the “natural experiment” of World War 2, the rate of dental caries was dramatically reduced.
If you are looking to reduce sugar for the first time you may be more successful if you aim for a diet that contains less than 10% sugar.
10% sugar means that no more than 200 calories should come from sugar. This is equivalent to 12 teaspoons of sugar.
As an example, around 200 calories of sugar are contained within
- 250ml of orange juice, or
- 500ml of a soft drink, or
- One glazed donut, or
- 5 chocolate digestive biscuits.
As each of the above options contains your entire allowance of sugar, you would need to eat foods free from added sugar for the rest of the day to remain within the 10% sugar limit.
To reach a goal of 5% sugar, you will need to reduce added sugar treats even further.
Food Labelling
At first it can be difficult to work out how much sugar you are ingesting with each meal or drink.
In recent years, manufacturers have started including nutrition information on the product packaging. This information makes it easier to calculate exactly how many grams of sugar you are eating at each sitting.
A traffic light system of red, amber and green can also make it easier to quickly spot if a product is high in sugar.
When looking at the ingredients list, many types of sugar can be concealed if you are unaware of the alternative names for sub-groups of sugar. Glucose, sucrose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrup and brown sugar are all types of sugar that can be added to foods.
Being savvy with food labelling can make it easier to keep your sugar consumption in check and under control.
Health Apps
Numerous apps now exist to help you log exactly what you eat each day via your smartphone or tablet.
Simply scan the barcode of the item, and the nutrition information will be logged on the app. The app will keep track of your total nutritional intake, so you can see your progress with reducing sugar.
Items that cannot be scanned, such as fresh fruit, can still be logged manually.
Using an app can help you to spot trends or patterns, and may help you to make healthier choices.
Some apps will also allow you to log symptoms or changes in weight for further insights into the effect your diet is having.
Eating Less Sugar
We now know that sugar can be addictive.
If you are ready to cut added sugars out of your diet to improve your health, there are several simple swaps you can try to get started.
Rather than consuming the empty calories of fizzy drinks, fruit juice or sugary squash, switch to drinking water. This way, you can save your calories for something that is actually going to fill you up and offer nutritional value.
Reduce the sugar you consume in hot drinks such as tea and coffee. Gradually reduce the amount of sugar you add, and try to avoid syrups or hot chocolates.
Ensure you include a healthy amount of fruit and vegetables in your diet. Their natural sugars are broken down slowly for sustained energy release, and they contain a wealth of nutrients to keep you healthy.
Snack on seeds and nuts rather than processed treats. A small square of dark chocolate may give you a boost whilst containing far less sugar than milk chocolate.
If you intend to bake healthy snacks to keep you on the right track, substitute refined sugar for naturally sweet alternatives. Dates or bananas can sweeten a homemade cake or bar perfectly.
A New, Healthier You
It can take time to get used to a diet that is far lower in sugar than your body is used to.
However, with such a long list of health benefits, it is well worth reducing the amount of sugar you eat.
By cutting out processed treats, sugary drinks and hidden sugars, you may start to lose weight and start protecting your vital organs from damage, too.
Helpful Resources
- org/2018/v23/af/4704/fulltext.htm
“Impact of Sugar on the Body, Brain and Behavior”
A 2018 study into the neuroadaptations that occur when consuming excess sugar.
2013 research into the addictive nature of sugar in comparison to cocaine.
World Health Organisation recommendations regarding daily sugar intake.
The long term complications of a high-sugar diet.
- Zero Sugar Detox by Cody Smith
A self-help guide to overcoming sugar addiction and cravings.
- The Easy Sugar Detox Cookbook by Kristin Yarker
Recipes to support a sugar-free lifestyle.
Hannah England is a freelance copywriter with a clinical background. After working as a doctor for several years, she now writes medical educational articles to help fitness lovers around the World
She endeavours to empower patients by providing informative content that allows them to make healthy choices for improved wellbeing.
Expertise:
- Health
- Medicine
- Nutrition